Cabin Disinfection at Olbia Costa Smeralda (LIEO)

Why do charter operators request cabin disinfection at Olbia?

Olbia sees concentrated charter activity from late May through early September, with July and August generating three to four thousand movements each month. Aircraft often fly multiple legs per day—morning positioning from a mainland base, a midday charter to Ibiza or Cannes, return to Olbia for an evening departure—and the cabin accumulates passenger contact faster than a typical owner schedule. Between legs, visible cleaning is straightforward, but invisible microbial load on armrests, tray tables and lavatory handles builds quickly in warm weather.

Cabin disinfection addresses that invisible layer. We apply aviation-grade disinfectant to every switch, latch, galley surface and seat control, then treat the air path through vents and gaspers. If the previous charter included smokers or strong food odours, we neutralise them as part of the same visit. The certificate of treatment goes into your tech log, satisfying both your own standard and any client expectation of a sanitised environment. For fleets running back-to-back charters all summer, a weekly disinfection cycle keeps the cabin consistently fresh without disrupting the daily rhythm.

What changes at Olbia Costa Smeralda during the season?

Olbia sits just 37 feet above sea level, three kilometres from the town centre, with a single 2,745-metre runway serving both scheduled and general-aviation traffic. The airport is slot-coordinated year-round, but the operational tempo shifts dramatically with the calendar. From October through April traffic is light; from June through September the field handles waves of airline arrivals and a steady flow of business jets serving the Costa Smeralda resorts. July and August are the peak months, and prior-permission-required filing becomes mandatory for general aviation.

Three handling agents operate at the field: Eccelsa Aviation, AviaVIP and Sky Services. Eccelsa runs the dedicated general-aviation terminal—a 4,000-square-metre facility opened in 2009 with an aircraft-side wing that shelters types up to B737 and A320—and keeps the terminal open from 07:00 to 22:00 local, with paid extensions available on request. During the summer peak, Olbia Ground extends its hours to 06:00–22:00 UTC from 1 June to 30 September. Avgas waits can stretch to ninety minutes between June and September, so fuel planning and ground-time estimates need a buffer. We schedule disinfection work around those constraints, typically slotting the service into an overnight or a midday gap when the aircraft is already on stand and the handler has confirmed GPU availability.

How does cabin disinfection fit a tight turnaround at Olbia?

A standard disinfection takes one to two hours, which rarely fits inside a sub-sixty-minute turnaround during peak season. If you have a morning arrival at 09:00, a charter departure at 19:00 and the aircraft remains on stand all day, we coordinate with your handler to begin work once catering and any cabin tidying are complete—usually mid-afternoon when the apron is quieter and GPU access is easier to secure. The handler provides the airside escort; we bring our own disinfectants, microfibre cloths and air-treatment equipment, and we leave no residue that requires a post-service wipe-down.

For overnight stops, disinfection works well after the last flight of the day. The aircraft is already chocked and on ground power, the cabin is cool, and there is no pressure from an inbound slot the next morning. If you are operating an early departure—wheels-up at 07:00 or 08:00—we finish the evening before and leave the cabin sealed overnight. The result is a completely sanitised environment when your passengers board at first light, with no delay to pushback.

What surfaces and systems does the disinfection cover?

We treat every surface a passenger or crew member touches during flight. Seats receive attention first: leather or fabric faces, armrest caps, recline controls, seat-belt buckles and anchor points. Tables—both fold-out and fixed credenzas—are wiped edge to edge, including the underside of leaves and the hinge mechanisms. Galley counters, drawer pulls, oven handles and refrigerator latches are disinfected, as are all lavatory fixtures: taps, flush buttons, door locks, grab rails and the toilet seat itself.

Switches and control panels throughout the cabin—reading-light toggles, window-shade wheels, air-vent rosettes, gaspers and entertainment touchscreens—are cleaned with a disinfectant safe for avionics and plastic lenses. We do not spray directly onto any panel; the cloth is dampened off the aircraft, wrung almost dry, then applied by hand to avoid moisture ingress. Door handles, both cabin and cockpit, and the airstair handle and rails are treated last. If odour removal is required, we run a vapour neutraliser through the cabin and, where accessible, treat the air-conditioning inlet grilles. The certificate we provide lists every zone and surface covered, so your records are complete.

What do handlers at Olbia expect from a third-party cleaning crew?

Handlers at Olbia—like those across Italy—want advance notice, valid airside documentation and a clear statement of work. We notify the handling agent at least 24 hours before the scheduled disinfection, providing our crew's airside-pass details and the aircraft registration. On the day, the handler escorts us from the terminal to the stand, verifies that GPU is connected and confirms that no catering or maintenance activity will overlap with our window. If another contractor—a cabin-refurbishment team or an avionics technician—is already on board, the handler will ask us to wait or return later; two teams in a midsize cabin create both a safety issue and a liability tangle.

Once we begin, the handler expects us to stay within the cabin and the immediate area around the airstair. We do not open panels, remove seat cushions beyond what is needed to reach a buckle, or enter the cockpit unless explicitly authorised by the captain or chief pilot. When the work is finished, we collect all waste, report completion to the handler and leave the aircraft secured. The handler logs the activity and forwards a copy of our certificate to the flight department. This choreography is standard across Italian general-aviation terminals, and it keeps the turnaround predictable for everyone involved.

When should an operator schedule disinfection during the Olbia season?

Charter operators running continuous rotations through July and August typically disinfect once per week, usually on a Sunday evening or early Monday when the aircraft has a longer ground stop between client bookings. Owner flights with less frequent use may disinfect after every long-haul return—particularly if the inbound leg carried guests from a region with different health protocols—or after a charter sublease. Medical and repatriation flights almost always include disinfection as a contractual requirement, performed immediately after the patient is offloaded and before the next commercial leg.

If your aircraft has been parked at Olbia for several days during a heatwave—cabin temperatures can exceed 50 degrees Celsius on the apron in August—disinfection also serves as a microbial reset before the owner boards. Warm, closed cabins accelerate bacterial growth on any organic residue left behind, and a single disinfection pass eliminates that risk. For fleets operating both owner and charter missions from the same airframe, a post-charter disinfection before the owner's next flight is a simple way to maintain the distinction between the two uses and to ensure the cabin is always presented in the same condition.